Coping with stress and anxiety - whether you have psychology help or not - is one of the best ways to succeed in life. Simply getting to work or school, dealing with peers and colleagues, balancing the budget, and communicating with friends and family can increase feelings of anxiety, depression, and even fear. Some anxious feelings are normal and healthy. However, extreme anxiety can be physically and emotionally overwhelming.
And that's where psychology help comes in.
When you learn to cope with stress and anxiety in a healthy, effective way you’ll not only breath easier, you’ll have better relationships and be more productive at work. Coping with stress and anxiety can ease specific stressful situations, such as surgery.
Anxiety and Anxious Feelings
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 40 million people in America suffer from anxiety disorders. Feelings of anxiety are not only common and treatable – they’re inevitable.
Feelings of anxiety range from mild uneasiness to extreme terror. “Fear is the most powerful emotion,” says Michael Fanselow, a University of California (Los Angeles) psychologist. It’s necessary for survival, and it’ll keep you alive and healthy unless it escalates to abnormal proportions. Appropriate fear and anxiety can help you perform well, keep you alert, and even help you deal with pain.
But too much anxiety can damage your mental and emotional health.
The Physical Effects of Anxiety and Stress
You know how anxiety and stress changes your body. Unhealthy levels of anxiety can cause intestinal problems, stomach pains, headaches, rashes, or flare ups of other chronic illnesses such as ulcerative colitis or migraines. Insomnia and fatigue can also result – as well as psychological struggles such as extreme debilitating anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.
Stress Management Techniques to Reduce Anxious Feelings
Music. Be creative when you’re coping with anxiety and stress! For instance, try music therapy. Research shows that listening to relaxing music significantly reduces feelings of anxiety and fear before and during surgery. Music therapy doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive - it's psychology that helps. Music therapy can simply involve listening to your favorite relaxing music before a stressful event.
Visualization of positive outcomes has also proved to reduce feelings of anxiety and fear. When you focus on a desired outcome, you increase the chances of it happening (The Secret involves visualization, and can reduce anxiety).
Distinguish between reality and fantasy. Real threats are very different from perceived ones, or fantasy. For instance, feeling anxious about a meeting or exam you aren’t prepared for is a real fear that can be dealt with; feeling anxious about a hoard of birds attacking is a perceived fear that likely won’t happen. Learning to reassure yourself of the reality of a situation can help you cope with anxiety and stress.
Anxiety medication. Medicating for anxiety and fear may be effective, but learning to cope with stress and anxiety naturally may be better in the long run. Talk to your doctor about anxiety remedies such as Clonazepam or Buspar, which are anxiety-reducing medications.
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Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen - Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen is a full-time writer and blogger in Vancouver, BC, and the creator of the Quips and Tips blog series.
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